Bioinformatics

News Releases

Public Release: 18-Jul-2014 Nature CommunicationsScientists enlist big data to guide conservation efforts
Genetic studies have given us detailed information about the evolutionary relationships embodied in the Tree of Life, while newly digitized museum collections contain a wealth of information about species distribution. To date, however, these big data collections have not been applied to conservation efforts. University of California, Berkeley's Brent Mishler and Australian colleagues have created a model taking both distribution and relationships into account to identify lineages that need preservation, in particular rare endemics.
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

Public Release: 17-Jul-2014 NatureTiniest catch: University of Arizona scientists' fishing expedition reveals viral diversity in the sea
Using bacteria as bait, University of Arizona scientists caught wild ocean viruses and then deciphered their genomes. They learned that the genetic lines between virus types in nature are less blurred than previously thought.
Department of Energy, University of Arizona/Biosphere 2, University of Arizona/BIO5 Institute, National Science Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Public Release: 16-Jul-2014ITN's TrialShare wins National Academies Board on Research Data and Information challenge
The Immune Tolerance Network's TrialShare Clinical Trials Research Portal has won the National Academy of Sciences Data and Information Challenge. The theme of this year's competition, launched and judged by the academy's Board on Research Data and Information, was 'Using Data for the Public Good.' The ITN's entry, entitled 'ITN TrialShare: Enabling True Clinical Trial Transparency' describes the unique data sharing portal developed by the NIH-sponsored clinical research consortium.

Public Release: 16-Jul-2014Pioneer in next generation sequencing receives 2014 HudsonAlpha Life Sciences Prize
Noted scientist and geneticist Jay Shendure, M.D., Ph.D., was today presented with the 2014 HudsonAlpha Life Science Prize for his innovative work in the development and application of genomic technology, including completing a detailed sequence of DNA from HeLa cells, the first 'immortal' human cell line grown in a lab.
The Alpha Foundation

Public Release: 15-Jul-2014 mBio of the American Society of MicrobiologyTGen-led study finds likely origin of lung fungus invading Pacific Northwest
Cryptococcus gattii, a virulent fungus that has invaded the Pacific Northwest is highly adaptive and warrants global "public health vigilance," according to a study by an international team led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen). C. gattii, which likely originated in Brazil, is responsible for dozens of deaths in recent years since it was first found in 1999 on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, well outside its usual tropical habitats.
National Institutes of Health, Medical Research Council of South Africa

Public Release: 14-Jul-2014 PLOS ONEScientists developed new technology for the diagnosis of cancer cells
The type of therapy a cancer patient receives, largely depends on the eye of a pathologist. However, human judgment is, by its very nature, subject to variation. To enhance the quality of diagnosis, scientists at Vetmeduni Vienna, the Medical University of Vienna and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Cancer Research have developed a software that identifies cell structures and proteins in order to provide reliable diagnoses. The data was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Public Release: 11-Jul-2014 Nature CommunicationsBGI reports a novel gene for salt tolerance found in wild soybean
A team of researchers from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, BGI and other institutes have identified a gene of wild soybean linked to salt tolerance, with implication for improving this important crop to grow in saline soil. This study published online in Nature Communications provides an effective strategy to unveil novel genomic information for crop improvement.

Public Release: 9-Jul-2014
Annual Meeting of the Mycological Society of AmericaUC Riverside microbiologist receives national recognition
Jason Stajich, associate professor of plant pathology and microbiology at the University of California, Riverside, has been awarded the 2014 Alexopoulos Prize by the Mycological Society of America, a scientific society dedicated to advancing the science of mycology -- the study of fungi of all kinds including mushrooms, molds, truffles, yeasts, lichens, plant pathogens, and medically important fungi. The award is peer-nominated and each year recognizes an outstanding early-career mycologist. Stajich received the award last month.
Mycological Society of America

Public Release: 9-Jul-2014Managing the data jungle
Many biology labs fight with a glut of measurement data. New software aims to make this a thing of the past: it simplifies laboratory experiment evaluation and unifies how data is saved. It even identifies measurement errors on the spot.

Public Release: 8-Jul-2014 Health AffairsThe impact of big data on health care: Health Affairs' July issue
Health Affairs explores the promise of big data in improving health care effectiveness and efficiency in its July issue. Many articles examine the potential of approaches such as predictive analytics and address the unavoidable privacy implications of collecting, storing, and interpreting massive amounts of health information.

Public Release: 8-Jul-2014 Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of TexasNew plant species from the heart of Texas
Collectors found two specimens of the prickly plant in 1974 and 1990 in Texas. Then, for two decades, the 14 plant was identified wrongly as one species, then another, then a third. Now -- after a long search turned up a 'pathetic, wilted' third specimen -- a University of Utah botanist and colleagues identified the spiny plant as a new, possibly endangered species and named it 'from the heart' in Latin because it was found in Valentine, Texas.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 7-Jul-2014 Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesDNA of 'Evolution Canyon' fruit flies reveals drivers of evolutionary change
An international team of researchers led by scientists with the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech has peered into the DNA of fruit flies that live hardly a puddle jump apart in a natural environment known as 'Evolution Canyon' in Mount Carmel, Israel, discovering how these animals have been able to adapt and survive in such close, but extremely different, environments.
United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation, Ancell Teicher Research Foundation

Public Release: 3-Jul-2014 PLOSWeighing up the secrets of African elephant body fat
A research team from The University of Nottingham has carried out the first molecular characterisation of the African elephant's adipose tissue -- body fat. This new information will form the basis of future studies aimed at securing the health and future survival of captive elephants.

Public Release: 3-Jul-2014 Human Molecular GeneticsA CNIO team reduces the size of the human genome to 19,000 genes
A study led by Alfonso Valencia and Michael Tress at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre updates the number of human genes to 19,000; 1,700 fewer than the genes in the most recent annotation, and well below the initial estimations of 100,000 genes. The work, published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics, concludes that almost all of these genes have ancestors prior to the appearance of primates 50 million years ago.

Public Release: 3-Jul-2014 Science SignalingBiological signal processing: Body cells -- instrumentalists in a symphony orchestra
Every organism has one aim: to survive. Its body cells all work in concert to keep it alive. They do so through finely tuned means of communication. Together with cooperation partners from Berlin and Cambridge, scientists at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine of the University of Luxembourg have now successfully revealed for the first time the laws by which cells translate signals from their surroundings into internal signals.

Public Release: 3-Jul-2014 Journal of the Americal Chemical Society'Work environment' affects protein properties
The function of proteins, which fulfil various tasks inside the cells, is often analysed in aqueous buffer solutions. However, it is not known, for example in case of pharmaceutical studies, if they work in the same way in those solutions as in their natural environment: the cytoplasm is highly crowded with biomolecules, organic and inorganic substances.

Public Release: 2-Jul-2014 PLOS ONENoninvasive advanced image analysis could lead to better patient care
Lung cancer patients could receive more precise treatment, and their progress could be better tracked, using a new high-tech method of non-invasive medical imaging analysis, according to a study published today by the journal PLOS ONE.
TGen Foundation, Scottsdale Healthcare Foundation, Flinn Foundation

Public Release: 1-Jul-2014 New PhytologistClemson scientists: Kudzu can release soil carbon, accelerate global warming
Clemson University scientists are shedding new light on how invasion by exotic plant species affects the ability of soil to store greenhouse gases. The research could have far-reaching implications for how we manage agricultural land and native ecosystems.
US Department of Agriculture, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 1-Jul-2014 Genome ResearchNew insights from the modENCODE Project are published in Genome Research
Genome Research publishes six articles online and in print today describing recent advancements from the modENCODE Project. Initially launched in 2007, the goal of the modENCODE Project is to comprehensively characterize functional genomic elements in two model organisms, the fly Drosophila melanogaster, and the worm Caenorhabditis elegans.

Public Release: 30-Jun-2014 Nature GeneticsStudies provide important new information on genetic risk of sudden cardiac death
Two international research studies, both led by investigators affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, have uncovered new information about genes that may increase the risk of serious cardiac arrhythmias.
National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 30-Jun-2014 NatureA first: Scientists show bacteria can evolve a biological timer to survive antibiotics
Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers have demonstrated that when exposed to repeated cycles of antibiotics, within days bacteria can evolve a new adaptation, by remaining dormant for the treatment period to survive antibiotic stress. The results show for the first time that bacteria can develop a biological timer to survive antibiotic exposure. With this new understanding, scientists could develop new approaches for slowing the evolution of antibiotic resistance.
European Research Council, Israel Science Foundation

Public Release: 30-Jun-2014 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'Molecular movies' will enable extraordinary gains in bioimaging, health research
Researchers have created an imaging technology more powerful than anything that has existed before, and is fast enough to observe life processes as they actually happen at the molecular level. This will allow creation of improved biosensors to study everything from nerve impulses to cancer metastasis as it occurs.
Oregon State University, University of Alberta, Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Public Release: 30-Jun-2014 Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesEvolution of life's operating system revealed in detail
The evolution of the ribosome, a large molecular structure found in the cells of all species, has been revealed in unprecedented detail in a new study.
NASA Astrobiology Institute